Laura Joszt, MA

Despite the wide variety of rare diseases out there, children and families living with rare disease have one thing in common: they experience diagnostic delays. A new study in Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases described experiences of seeking and receiving a diagnosis of a rare disease and access to healthcare.

The European Respiratory Society and the American Thoracic Society have conducted a comprehensive review of evidence of managing exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in order to create a guideline of clinical recommendations.

People with high cholesterol, a known risk factor for heart disease and stroke, aren’t sure how to manage their condition, while 47% of people who had a history of cardiovascular disease or stroke had not checked their cholesterol in the past year.

Considering people spend two-thirds of their lives where they live, the quality of housing and the state of their neighborhood can play a large role in well-being and cause poor health. A new report from Urban Institute took a look at the impact of blighted properties and policy and program recommendations that can help communities make housing and neighborhoods healthier.

A new study in the Annals of Family Medicine, compared 11 countries and found that the US has the highest rate of poor primary care coordination. In order to better care for a growing younger, chronically ill population, the US healthcare system will need to be redesigned, the authors concluded.

Following a partisan battle and a year of contention following the death of Anton Scalia, the Senate has confirmed Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court of the United States. With nearly all Democrats voting against confirmation, the Senate voted along party lines to eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court confirmations so Gorsuch could be confirmed with only 54 senators supporting him.

Clinical pathways can successfully be used to drive physicians to choose a less costly regimen when the efficacy and toxicity of different treatment regimens for metastatic colorectal cancer are comparable, according to a study in the Journal of Oncology Practice.

The patient voice is becoming more important as healthcare moves to a value-based, patient-centered system of care, but just amplifying the patient voice is not enough. There needs to not only be amplification, but also a constructive response from the health system, said Thomas Lee, MD, chief medical officer at Press Ganey, during his presentation at the National Quality Forum Annual Conference.

Panelists, during a session on value and value-based reimbursement at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Annual Meeting, held March 27-30 in Denver, Colorado, discussed the benefits and challenges of value-based contracting and the current and evolving use of value frameworks.

Since the Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare never made it to a vote, insurers are still very uncertain about the future of healthcare. At this time it is unclear whether Republicans plan to shore up the law or actively undermine it.

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease see benefits from physical activity (PA); however, there are several barriers that limit participation in PA in a primary care setting.

Ted Okon, MBA, executive director of the Community Oncology Alliance (COA), discusses what the FDA would look like with Scott Gottlieb, MD, as commissioner, how the fee scheme of pharmacy benefit managers are contributing to rising drug costs, and COA's upcoming conference.

At the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Annual Meeting, held March 27-30, 2017, in Denver, Colorado, the cost of healthcare was on everyone’s minds and was a common thread in most sessions.

New targeted therapies reduce waste and identify patients that will benefit most, but their high price tags have left the healthcare industry scrambling to figure out how to pay for these treatments and cures.

In a session covering the future of the business of healthcare in the United States, Kevin Grabenstatter, managing director for L.E.K. Consulting, asserted that healthcare is an unsustainably big business, which means that change is coming.

The move away from fee-for-service has driven some health plans to embrace value-based care contracts and accountable care organizations. During a session at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Annual Meeting, held March 27-30, 2017, in Denver, Colorado, panelists outlined how the marketplace has evolved.

The Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Annual Meeting kicked off on March 28, 2017, in Denver, Colorado, with a look at the specialty pharmaceutical pipeline with Aimee Tharaldson, PharmD, senior clinical consultant for emerging therapeutics at Express Scripts.

The majority of costs associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are associated with hospitalizations, and a new study in the International Journal of COPD set out to determine the exact drivers of high costs among hospitalized patients with COPD.

While the orphan drug market has been growing, a new study argues that the current unmet needs of patients with rare disease proves that current incentives are not efficiently stimulating orphan drug development.

After weeks of negotiations and last-minute drama, the House GOP has pulled its Obamacare replacement bill after it became clear that there were not enough votes to pass it.

As part of Republicans’ fast and furious push to repeal the Affordable Care Act, there is a vote scheduled today in the House of Representatives on the American Health Care Act. However, there have been serious doubts in the days leading up to the Thursday vote that there were enough votes in the House to pass the bill.

The Republican healthcare law repeals several provisions in former President Barack Obama’s health law; however, while the GOP's American Health Care Act does provide financial assistance, similar to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Americans will find that those dollars don’t go as far as they did under the ACA.

Home visits by teams led by registered nurses or lay health workers can reduce costs and utilization of services, such as emergency department visits and hospitalizations, according to a paper published in Health Affairs.

The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) has come out strongly against a bill that would provide employers with insight into workers’ personal medical and genetic information.

Difficulty in making pricing and reimbursement decisions for rare diseases has prevented patients from having universal access to new medicines despite increased investment in their research and development. In Europe, a group has proposed 9 principles to guide value assessment, pricing, and funding.

HHS Secretary Tom Price, MD, continued to downplay the Congressional Budget Office’s report on the GOP healthcare bill, promoted how the plan gives Americans more choice, and clarified an earlier statement made about the financial health of patients during a CNN town hall moderated by Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash.

For the first time, the rate of drug price increases has surpassed the increase of the cost of hospitalizations, which is an important turning point, said Charles J. Fazio, MD, medical director of HealthPartners, Inc, during a panel discussion at America’s Health Insurance Plans’ National Health Policy Conference.

The FDA has approved Novartis’ ribociclib (Kisqali) for treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 negative (HR+/HER2-) advanced or metastatic breast cancer.

President Donald Trump is expected to name Scott Gottlieb, MD, a resident scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, to lead the FDA, according to reports. Gottlieb would replace Robert Califf, MD, who only took over the position February 2016 and stepped down less than a year later in January 2017.

With costs of care being more closely scrutinized, there has been a proliferation of value frameworks to help guide decision making for treatments. In a blog post for Health Affairs, Robert W. Dubois, MD, PhD, and Kimberly Westrich, MA, both of the National Pharmaceutical Council, provide possible considerations for advancing the field of value frameworks.